Softie's Best Christmas Present
by Diegorules483
Summary: It's Shira's first Christmas with the herd, but she wonders if she will get Christmas at all because of all her bad deeds in the past. And she also has a surprise for Diego. I'm not letting the cat out of the bag yet (hee hee) so please read to find out what it is! Rated K plus just in case. Merry Christmas from Diegorules483
1. Chapter 1

**I've decided to join in with the Christmas Celebrations, and so I wrote this! **

**It's set a few months after Ice Age 4, at their new home.**

**Enjoy! :D**

* * *

"_Deck the halls with moss and rockweed!  
Fa la la la la, la la la la!_

_Tis the season to be jolly_

_Fa la la la la, la la la la!"_

Shira lay at the edge of a clearing, watching as Sid skipped around a large pine tree, hanging fish skeletons, glow worms, and colourful berries on its many branches.

It was the 24th of December: Christmas Eve. All the animals who had journeyed on the iceberg-boat from the old continent to this new land, almost 4 months ago, were busy preparing for the next day. In every cave, in every burrow, around every nest, decorations were being hung and feasts were being prepared.

The herd was also joining in with the celebrations. Manny had found another Christmas Rock up in the high mountains, and had rolled it all the way down to the centre of the animal's village. Ellie and Granny were preparing a Christmas feast for the plant-eating animals that night. Crash, Eddie, Peaches, and Louis were helping decorate the village. And, as mentioned before, Sid was decorating the Christmas tree with the hyraxes.

Shira smiled at the happy scene spread out before her. But there was only one thing missing, and that was…

"Hey, kitty."

Shira whirled around to see a tawny-orange, handsome sabre tooth tiger loping towards her. It was Diego.

"How many times," Shira pretended to snarl, "do I have to tell you not to call me 'Kitty'?"

"For the rest of our lives…Kitty!"

"You're dead, puss!" the silver sabre-tooth snarled, and she lunged at Diego, pinning him to the ground.

But it was not meant as a real attack, like on the iceberg-raft out at sea, when the continents had split up. This was a play fight. A romantic play fight, to be precise.

For Diego and Shira were now officially mates.

* * *

About two months after they arrived on the shores of this new world, Diego had turned to Shira, and, blushing crimson through his fur, asked her in a nervous voice, "Shira…will you… will you be my mate?"

That had been the best moment of Shira's life so far.

"Is that a question?" she had smirked. Then she had given Diego a gentle kiss on the lips. "Yes, I will, Softy."

And, for once, Diego didn't object to being called that name. His grin spread from ear to ear. He had looked like a cub who had just caught his first baby gazelle, and was showing it off to his or her proud parents.

The ceremony had taken place the next day. All the animals around the island – hyraxes, molehogs, starts, beavers, and more – were invited to the wedding. Manny had acted as the minister, declaring them bonded for life. Peaches was the bridesmaid and flower girl, and Diego invited Sid to be his best mammal. Sid had been so chuffed to receive such an important part in the wedding, that he had brushed down his fur so it had laid flat all over his body. He had looked so comical that Peaches had been reduced to franticly muffled sniggers within a few seconds.

The possums, Crash and Eddie, had sobbed unashamedly throughout the wedding, especially hard when Diego and Shira shared their first kiss as mates. All the animals present had gone "awwww" during that tender moment.

Everybody except Sid's Grandmother. Granny had mimed puking when Diego and Shira had kissed.

* * *

Once the sabres had finished their romantic play-fight, they raced each other back to the clearing, where the hyraxes had formed a tower to place a star made out of hardened resin at the top of the tree.

"I tell you, Diego," gasped Shira, as the two tigers caught their breath. "I won that time!"

"And I say it was a tie," panted Diego.

"Do you want me to tell Sid that I call you, 'Softie-Woftie Poo' when we're alone?"

Diego finally admitted defeat. "Alright, you won, Shira. Fair and square."

The silver sabre smiled and licked Diego's cheek. Then she turned her eyes from her mate to the Christmas tree in the centre of the clearing.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" she commented.

"Yeah," Diego nodded. "Sid invented it, did you know?"

Shira raised her eyebrows. "No! Him?"

"Oh yes. About five or six years ago."

"Tell me about it, Softie."

Diego smiled. "Manny had just brought out his old Christmas rock..."

"A Christmas Rock?"

"It's a mammoth tradition. Anyway, Sid was very interested in it, as usual, and wanted to touch it. But Manny was afraid that Sid might break it."

"Break it?" Shira scoffed. "That's impossible!"

"Sid did break it, eventually. Anyway, Peaches said that they needed the rock so Santa could find them and deliver presents. Sid said that it was too small and bland for Santa to see, so he, Crash, and Eddie decorated a nearby tree with fish skeletons, worms, and ice ornaments. And so he's decorated a tree each Christmas since. It's a cool idea, but it'll never catch on."

Diego turned to Shira. "So, tell me, what did you do for Christmas, Shira?"

"Same as any other sabre, when I was in a pack. The males would catch a really huge gazelle, and everybody would gorge themselves. Not a scrap of meat was left."

The golden sabre tooth tiger laughed. "Just like my pack. Good, fresh meat, and an awful stomach-ache afterwards. Those were the good old days."

Shira sighed. "But, when I ended up stuck on Gutt's ship, there were no celebrations. I only spent about a year and a quarter on the crew, and there was no Christmas at all." Her voice turned downcast. "In fact, because of all the plundering we did, I'm not sure I might get Christmas this year."

"Well, I have experience of being on the naughty list," said a spitty voice from behind them.

It was Sid, standing there with a smile on his face.

* * *

Diego snarled at the sloth. "Sid! I've told you before not to intrude on our private moments!"

"Let him off, Diego!" Shira smiled. "It's alright. I mean, we weren't doing anything _too_ intimate, were we?"

"Okay," Diego sighed, and he lay down again next to his mate.

Shira looked at Sid. "What do you mean, you were on the naughty list?"

The sloth sat down in front of Shira. "Well, four years ago, I broke Manny's Christmas rock, and I got on Santa's naughty list."

A few months previously, Shira would've scoffed at the idea of Santa Claus being real, for that was stuff for cubs in her mind, not adult tigers. But now she knew that the herd had met Santa Claus a few years, and she smiled at Sid. "Go on."

"Any-ho, Peaches, Crash, Eddie, and I went up to the north pole to get off the Naughty List, and we met a flying reindeer called Prancer, and he flew us to the north pole, where we met mini-sloths, and there was an avalanche." Sid prattled on and on. "And we were all on the naughty list, but we fixed everything up, and built Santa a sleigh so he could deliver…"

"Sid. Get to the point," Diego said, bemused.

"My point is, that whenever you do good stuff, like when we made all the Christmas toys and repaired everything, it keeps you on the Nice List, as long as you do more good stuff than bad stuff. And before you were a pirate, you must've done good stuff, right, Shira?"

Shira thought back to her cubhood and teenage years.

She realised that she had done lots of nice things.

* * *

_When she was three months old, she had brought her sick sister water while her mother looked for herbs that would sooth the sister's stomach. _

_At nine months old, she had tended to her best friend's broken leg._

_At fourteen months old, she had caught a young beaver as it fell from a cliff._

_And during the storm that swept her out to sea on a hunk of ice, just before she met Captain Gutt, she had selflessly saved an armadillo, a molehog, and her best friend from a falling tree, and directed them to safe ground before she tumbled onto a fast-moving iceberg. _

_More recently, still, she had helped cut the vines that bound Ellie to a stump on the _Sweet Revenge_, and tended to some injuries that the mammals on the iceberg-boat had received._

_And even though she had done plenty of pirating, Shira had never hurt or killed any captured animal. _

* * *

"You're right…" Shira breathed. "I have done lots of good things in my life."

"You see!" Sid exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. Then he picked something off the ground and held it above the two tigers: some mistletoe. "Now, come on! Kiss, pussy cats!"

Shira glanced at Diego. "What?"

Diego grinned apologetically. "He says that if any two mammals meet under the mistletoe, they should kiss."

"No problem, then," Shira sniggered, and she leaned in to kiss her mate.

But just before their lips met, she felt her stomach lurch, and something traveling up her throat. Quickly, Shira turned away…and puked into a nearby bush.

"Shira!" Diego cried, alarmed. "Are you okay?"

"I don't know," Shira muttered, gagging at the taste of the spew still in her mouth. "I just felt sick all of a sudden, and I just had to."

"Maybe mistletoe is bad for sabres," Sid mused. "Diego wants to kill me rather than kiss me when we're caught underneath it, and you throw up."

"Maybe males aren't meant to kiss under the mistletoe." Diego pointed out.

Sid nodded. "Yeah. Only on romantic cruises, right?"

"That did not happen, Sid!" Diego growled. Behind him, he could hear Shira's muffled laughter. The silver sabress had heard the tale about how Diego and Sid kissed (by accident) at Siren Cove, and it never failed to amuse her.

'_You just _had_ to bring that up, Sid, didn't you?'_ Diego thought.

* * *

Shira finally couldn't hold her giggles in any longer, and burst out laughing so hard it hurt her stomach.

And then she felt it lurch again.

'_Oh, no.'_

Once again, Shira vomited. But this time, all over Sid.

"Yeesh," Sid groaned, shaking the puke off his arms. "Anybody have a body wipe?"

"I'm really sorry, Sid!" Shira apologized

Now Diego was really concerned. "Shira, what's wrong? Throwing up just once is fine, throwing up twice in the space of a minute or so is very bad!"

"Actually," said Shira slowly, "I've been feeling nauseous all week. I just thought it had gone away today."

"We should get you to the doctor, Shira," Sid stated. "He'll figure out what's wrong with you."

"The doctor?" Diego asked.

"Yeah. He's the wisest hyrax on this island."

"Can you take me now?" Shira questioned the sloth. "I don't know about you two, but I would like to know what's wrong with me as soon as possible.

"Once I get this puke washed off," Sid smiled, as he wandered down the bank towards a nearby stream. "Fungus is fine, but this…no way!"

* * *

The doctor hyrax, whose name was Lornook, was one of the oldest hyraxes in the New World. However, he was as fit as any other member of his species. He could skid down a steep bank to where a gazelle had broken his leg, or climb up a cliff to where a sick animal was stuck.

Lornook lived in a small dirt hut, like the other hyraxes. This hut was distinguishable from the others by the fact that it had a clay chimney protruding out of its roof. Grey smoke would often drift out of the chimney, indicating that Lornook was cooking up some new medicines.

* * *

Sid knocked gently on the side of the dirt hut. Lornook poked his silver-furred head out of the entrance, and babbled something to Sid.

The sloth did a quick routine of cartwheeling, squeaking, and whistling. When Lornook disappeared back inside his hut, Shira looked questioningly at Sid.

"I just told him that my friend – you – is feeling sick, and I think he's gone in to get his stuff," Sid explained.

Sid's assumption was correct, for Lornook emerged from his hut just then, carrying two stethoscopes, a series of leaves, and a stick dipped in berry juice.

The doctor hyrax listened to Shira's heartbeat with the smaller of the two stethoscopes, then examined the inside of her mouth, and finally examined her ears.

Then Lornook sat down, picked up a leaf in his left hand, and his writing stick in the other. He squeaked something intelligible.

"He's asking you to describe your symptoms," Sid explained. "I'll translate for you."

"I've been feeling nauseous all week, and I vomited twice today, sometimes I get strange tastes in my mouth, and I think I've started putting on weight," Shira said.

Sid translated each of her words into the Hyrax language. (He waved his arms about, stuck his tongue out, mimed puking, and wobbled his stomach about, while babbling, yodelling, and screeching at the same time.)

Lornook listened intently, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. Finally, he squeaked something to Sid.

"He says it could be an ulcer in your stomach," Sid translated.

Shira's breath caught in her throat.

Lornook babbled something else.

"But it doesn't explain the tastes in your mouth."

Shira let out a sigh of relief.

The old hyrax tapped his chin with his writing stick, and started jabbering away to himself. Sid translated nonetheless.

"It could be a disease from eating raw meat, but if that was the case she'd be losing weight, not gaining it, and if it's not a stomach ulcer then it's likely to be…"

Lornook suddenly grabbed the hyrax-sized stethoscope, but instead of putting it on Shira's chest, he put it on her stomach.

Lornook moved the stethoscopes about, until he seemed to hear something. His eyes lit up, and a hyrax smile formed on his face. He thrust the larger stethoscope at Shira.

Awkwardly, Shira inserted the earpieces into her ears. Lornook held the other end, and placed it on her stomach.

That's when Shira heard it.

* * *

It was now close to midnight. Almost every member of the herd was asleep.

Manny lay next to a large oak tree. Ellie and Peaches hung from one of its branches by their tails, and Crash and Eddie hung from another. Diego snoozed on the ground, next to the now-absent fire. Sid was slumped on a rock, snoring loudly and occasionally kicking his feet in the air, muttering unintelligible gobbledygook in his sleep. And Granny was tied to a tree by her leg, sleep-shuffling around and around the trunk, calling for Precious, her pet whale.

Only Shira held out against the invasion of sleep.

She lay near her mate, thinking about the amazing thing she had learnt today.

'_Oh, how can I have been so stupid! That explains everything, the nausea and puking, the weight gain, the tastes in my mouth! Why didn't I see it before?'_

Her head was full of worries, thoughts, and questions that needed answering.

'_Cool down, cat. You need your sleep.'_

She focused on the one thought that brought her greatest pleasure…what Diego's reaction was going to be next morning.

And finally, just before the clocks would strike twelve thousands of years in the future, Shira fell asleep.

* * *

Shortly afterwards, something flew over the place where the herd slept.

It was a large red sleigh, carrying a huge sack and pulled by eight flying reindeer.

Sitting at the front of the sleigh was a fat man wearing a red coat and a hat.

He was none other than Santa Claus himself.

Santa looked down at the sleeping animals, and smiled.

"You're all on the Nice list this year," he nodded.

Then Santa looked down at Shira, and his grin widened.

"Have a very merry Christmas, Shira. You've deserved it."

And, with a click of his fingers, several presents fell out of the sack and landed gently around the Christmas Rock in the centre of the herd's clearing.

Then the sleigh zoomed on, dropping more presents for all the other inhabitants of this new land, as Santa's booming, cheerful voice rang out all around.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

* * *

Christmas Day dawned bright and early.

Shira was the first to wake up. Despite the fact that she had slept well, her head spun slightly and her stomach felt uncomfortable.

'_Ugh…nausea.'_

The silver sabre then remembered that Lornook, the hyrax druid, had told her to look for a plant called peppermint that would sooth her nausea and sore stomach.

It wasn't too hard to find. There were large clumps of the plant near the clearing where the rest of the herd slept.

Shira chewed on the leaves for a while. The peppermint had a strong mint taste that hurt her tongue, but after a couple of minutes, she found that the nausea had gone away.

Pleased that her sore stomach had gone, Shira quickly walked back to the clearing and lay down like nothing had happened.

Everybody was still asleep, but not for long.

* * *

Peaches woke up first. At the sight of the mounds of presents under the Christmas Rock, her eyes widened, and she swung off her branch and down to the ground.

"Presents! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!"

Her excited squeals woke Crash and Eddie, who leaped to the ground and raced over to the pile of red-and-white-striped packages and sifted through them, looking for their presents.

Next, Manny and Ellie woke up. They smiled at the sight of the possums and their daughter gathered around the Christmas Rock, and then joined the group gathering their presents.

* * *

"Hey, Louis!" called Peaches. "Check out what I got for Christmas!"

A small trail of raised dirt raced across the clearing and into the Christmas Rock.

_Dong!_

The trail backtracked, and then Louis popped out of the ground, rubbing his sore head.

"Since when do rocks sit on the ground where I'm about to come out?" the molehog grumbled.

"Sorry," Peaches smiled. "It's a family tradition. Anyway, look what I got!"

She placed a beautiful sunflower in front of her left ear. "It's the newest fashion. What d'ya think, Louis?"

Louis didn't answer. He was staring at Peaches with huge, entranced eyes.

Finally, he managed to stutter, "It…it makes you look beautiful."

"Aww, Louis!" laughed the teenage mammoth, patting Louis's head with her trunk. "You're the best, best, best friend anybody could ask for!"

Louis could only smile very widely.

"Now, what did you get for Christmas, Louis?" Peaches asked.

* * *

The happy laughs and cries finally woke Diego. The big cat yawned, stretched, and slowly got to his feet.

"Morning, Shira," Diego said. "Are you alright? You know, after yesterday…"

Shira smiled. "I'm fine, Softie. In fact, I'm better than fine."

Diego gave her a lick on the cheek. "Well, I better see what presents I've got." The sabre started walking towards the Christmas rock, where Sid and Granny were now joining in with the unwrapping. Sid had received a wooden toy T-Rex and a crafted pirate ship, while Granny had received several packets of fish (for Precious), and where Louis was grudgingly showing off the knitted hat his mother had made for him.

"It looks cute!" Peaches giggled.

"Yeah, but we're not in the Snow Valley anymore!" the molehog complained. "I survived several winters without my ears freezing back there, and now we're in a warmer place but my mum _still_ wants me to wear this! And it has bobbles on it!"

"It suits you, Wie…uh…Louis," Crash sniggered.

"Yeah! Really!" added Eddie.

Louis gave them a stare that plainly said, 'I know you're lying, and don't call me Wiener otherwise I'll squash your foot like I did to that monkey.'

* * *

As Diego headed towards the piles of presents, Shira realised that now was the time to tell everybody about her surprise. The entire herd was here, and it was now or never.

She took a step forward.

"Wait!" she called.

Everybody looked.

"Before everybody goes rushing off to do their stuff, I have a surprise for everybody."

Manny paused in the middle of unwrapping his present: another ice mobile like the one in Peaches playground when she was just a calf. "Well, come on, Shira! What is it?"

Shira took another step forward, so she was right in front of Diego. She took deep breath. _'This is it. No turning back now.'_

"I'm pregnant."

There was silence.

Then there was a _thump_.

Then there was uproar.

The _thump_ was caused by Diego falling to the ground in a dead faint. And the uproar was caused by a mix of excited shouts and squeals from the rest of the herd.

"Congratulations, Shira!" shouted Manny. "Good luck with the journey to parenthood!"

"I knew it! I knew it! I was the third to know!" yelled Sid, dancing from foot to foot and waving his arms in the air.

"As long as they don't steal my teeth," Granny grumbled. "Or disturb Precious!"

"Wow, Shira! That's wonderful!" Ellie smiled widely.

"Awesome!" chorused the possum twins.

"Hey, Crash!" said Eddie. "Guess what we can do when the cubs are old enough? We can race them down the really steep slopes!"

"And teach them to hang by their tails!" cried Crash, and he paw-bumped his brother.

"Over my dead body!" snapped Shira.

"I'm going to have cousins!" squealed Peaches. "Did you hear, Louis? I'm going to have cousins!"

Louis, however, had not joined in the screaming and celebrations. He was bending over Diego's chest, listening for a pulse.

"Is he alright?" the molehog worried.

"Relax, Louis!" Ellie giggled. "The same thing happened when I told Manny I was pregnant."

"No, that's…that's wrong," Manny muttered, blushing through his poofy fur.

Shira was laughing so hard now she was close to collapsing. "Look at his face!" she choked through her laughter, pointing with her paw at Diego's expression of shock and ecstasy.

"But how do we revive him?" Louis asked.

That, as it turned out, wasn't a problem at all.

Granny shuffled over, and using her cane, pulled Diego's head towards her. "Hey, lady!" she snapped. "Tell your cubs not to go about disturbing my Precious."

Diego's head merely slumped back onto the ground.

Granny sniggered softly. Using her cane as a shovel, she tossed a heap of snow onto Diego's head.

That woke him up.

"You're…you're _pregnant_?!" the sabre gasped, leaping to his feet. "Are you sure?"

Shira picked up one of her presents, and unwrapped it to reveal a sabre-sized stethoscope.

"Listen to this," the silver sabre instructed, holding one end on her stomach, and handing the earpieces to Diego.

As Diego heard the tiny heartbeats from inside Shira, a goofy, joyful grin spread across his face.

"Shira, that's wonderful!" he laughed. "That's my best Christmas Present ever! I love you!"

"And I love you too, Softie!" Shira smiled, giving her mate another sabre kiss on the lips.

"I'm gonna puke!" muttered Granny, and she started shuffling out of the clearing towards the harbour.

Suddenly, Sid rushed forward, and tapped Diego on the shoulder.

"While we're still on the subject," he asked, "can I babysit for you?"

"Of course," said Shira, still smiling from ear to ear.

* * *

For despite the fact that her herd was very unusual, they were the best kind ever.

Caring, understanding, funny, brave… there were just not enough good words to describe them.

Shira knew that she was going to enjoy her pregnancy, and she would have help when the time to give birth came, and her cubs would grow up in the best possible environment; cared for by their uncles, friends, and half-siblings.

And she knew why three mammoths, two sloths, two possums, a molehog, and a remorsless, but soft, assassin, would do those things.

'Cause we _are, we are…_

_...Family.'_

* * *

**Please review!**

**Have a very Merry Christmas :D**

**Diegorules483**


	2. Author's Note

**Authors note**

**I'm going to write a multichapter sequel to this story, but because I'll be busy with my Pirates of the Ice Age xover, it might be a while before it gets posted. Shira is about three weeks pregnant in this story (9 weeks pregnant for a human), which is when the baby's heartbeat can first be heard, and this next story will take place as Shira's pregnancy continues from 6 weeks (18 weeks pregnant for a human) onwards. It will be told mostly from Shira's POV.**

**I've already got a few ideas for this story. Buck the weasel returns (:-D), Shira meets her best friend again, and Squint the pirate returns for revenge. **

**Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year**

**Diegorules483**


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